ABSTRACT
I shall start with some thoughts about perversion as a psychopathological entity. It is about the absence of a capacity to obtain sexual genital fulfilment within an intimate, loving relationship with another adult person. Instead, the individual suffering from a perversion feels taken over by compulsive behaviour (often inexplicable and bizarre to them and others) that provides temporary relief from unbearable and increasing sexualized anxiety. The notion of temporary relief is important, given that a feature of a perverse act is that it has to be repeated, yet it is never the hoped-for solution to intolerable psychic pain. Instead it could be thought of as an evacuation and a communication; or a repetition of early, unprocessed traumatic experiences no longer available to conscious thought.
